"I was joking with Travis: 'Oh well, there goes the number.' But it couldn't belong to a better person. Everything you hear about him, for what he does with his foundation, talking to people who know him, have been around him, just a first-class person.

"Besides, if I think of myself in connection with any number, it's 22. Let's be honest, that's my real number. Out of my 1,000 games, I betcha 800 are in No. 22, here, St. Louis and going to L.A.

"I just had 24 at the end, when I came back to Calgary."

The man who brokered the transaction with the NY Islanders on the draft floor, Calgary general manager Brad Treliving, has assembled quite a formidable force on the back end.

Adding Hamonic to a group that already includes Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie and Dougie Hamilton arguably provides the Flames with a top-four defence corps the rival of any around.

"I still think winning in this league, having as deep a blue line as you possibly can gives you the best chance,'' Treliving reasoned.

"What I like about them all, they can play today's game. They can transition pucks, they all can move. Travis is more known as a defender with an edge but he can play second powerplay.

"So I like our mobility, there's a little variance but they can all skate, they can all defend.

"So I like the looks of the group but (defence) is an area you really want to build from but we're going to poke around and see if there's still more we can do."

For a place that seemed always to be pulling him towards it, Hamonic had a slight problem actually getting here to Calgary, to the 'Dome, initially, on Monday.

The scheduled flight for he and wife Stephanie out of Winnipeg for a media unveiling was cancelled.

"Wasn't snowing,'' he joked. "I woke up and saw what had happened with the flight. And I'm thinking: 'Today, of all days …'

"They were pretty quick, though. Before I could even freak out they were booking me another flight.